Have a look at the closing chapter of Eisengrau · 8:07pm May 5th, 2017
The Island of Tortoise-Tuga, a few weeks later.
The nagging, persistent pink voice was the bane of Dim’s existence during his waking hours, but sleeping was even worse. Sleep was when Princess Luna came to torment him. Somehow, she was reaching halfway around the world to mess with his mind, promising him that he would endure the most terrible, most brutal acts of tough love the world had ever witnessed if he did not come home. As his grandmother, she was sick of his shit—something about this chilled and curdled his blood.
Even worse, he kept having nightmares about a crinkled paper alicorn who poured ink down his throat, drowning him. The ink was bitter, vile, and poured from the paper alicorn’s eyes like a flood of tears. Dim was certain that this was some fantastical dream crafted and created by Princess Luna, designed to torment him until his spirit broke, or he went home.
At the moment, he was living in a rented room in what had once been a rum distillery on the fabled island of Tortoise-Tuga. The isle had once been a shared colony for the Grittish and for Fancy, but that was long ago. It had since fallen to anarchy, becoming a haven for pirates, privateers, and the buck-an-ear types. Since coming here, Dim had made a small fortune doing magical drudgery.
This was an awful place, a terrible place, and Dim knew that he needed to go, he had to leave before he burned the entire island down and drove the disgusting primitives into the sea so they could and would be drowned. Slavery existed here, the trafficking of sapients, and for Dim, it was just a matter of time before something inside of him snapped, leading to what was sure to be another killing spree. Much to his own horror, he had done it once, and he lived with the soul-crushing knowledge of how easy it would be to do again.
Shepherd’s Shore haunted him. His memory of it was hazy, difficult to recollect, but the terrible pink voice reminded him of what he had done. She would not let him forget. When the guilt came, a guilt that Dim had been unaware that he could feel, the voice would seize upon it, lecturing him, scolding him, rebuking him for his soul-withering act of violence. Dim could not fault her, he had done wrong, there was no denying that.
The pink voice had convinced him that the very fact that he felt bad about it was evidence that he had a soul worth saving. He wanted to believe her—he did, he had a sincere, honest desire to do so—but there was a deeper, darker part of himself that didn’t want to be saved. He deserved to suffer and when death came, the pale pony and his shadows would come to claim him.
He had left the Grittish Isles just in time. It had collapsed into bickering, fighting city states at war with one another, due in no small part to the massacre in Shepherd’s Shore. An unknown pony now roamed the isles, killing, murdering, and burning—a pony that matched Dim’s description and called himself ‘Dim Dark, the Lord of Shades.’ Dim didn’t know what was going on, if the Lord of Shades was a real pony or if agitators had seized upon his own description after the slaughter at Shepherd’s Shore. A cunning enemy would take advantage of the terror that Dim had sown and Dim wondered if his mother was involved somehow.
The only thing that Dim knew for certain was, Grogar had the Grittish Isles now, of this there could be no doubt. The entire world was now holding its breath as the civil war continued to intensify, throwing the global economy into chaos and sending a flood of refugees to friendly shores. Dim was the instigator, the perpetrator, the pony responsible for inciting the civil war among the Crowned Heads of the Grittish Isles, and his doppelganger was there, even now, sowing the seeds of discontent and discord.
It might be finished today, it might not. I don't know. There might be a link up later for people to come and hang out while it is in its finishing stages.
1: Dim does not know to take a hint. Go see the princesses and take your medicine, young horse.
2: Dim has an impostor, who's also good with mayhem? That doesn't bode well.
(Just had to go there, sorry....well partly sorry.
(Buggy-Queen Rhapsody lyrics nearly done.)
4521281
Um, think about how much time the Darks spent inbreeding to achieve the 'Dark Ideal.' They all sort of look the same.
4521339
My comments stands on the grounds that any Darks other than Dim being out and about probably does not bode well for anyone.
4521351
Oh, I was elaborating on your comment, because it was spot on.
One of the problems with impersonating somepony (imponyating?) is the uncertainty of not knowing if the subject will just 'show up' someday at the worst possible time.
Or worse, if they have taken offense at your performance.
4521432
Or you wait for them to arrive and capture them.
I figure there will be nowhere else to run for the wayward Dim Dark...
On that note, I am so glad you brought this story to a conclusion that you believed was fitting. The only question is... how far will Dimmie have to climb in order to get out of the pit his family has carved out for him? More importantly, the pit that he's just put his own personal shovel to?
Seeing that process of rebuilding? That has now become important to me.